Review: The Unknown Woman

(La sconosciuta, 2006) Opening the same week as “Frozen River,” an American movie about trafficking in human souls, “The Unknown Woman,” the first feature from Giuseppe Tornatore since 2000’s “Malèna,” is a heady, overproduced revenge tale about sex trafficking, and it’s a heady eyeful. Dervishes whirl; Tornatore’s camera spins to the dance of an emphatic, Hermannesque Ennio Morricone score. While some passages in Tornatore’s movies tend to the slobbery, such as “Cinema Paradiso,” the best moments in his work are deliciously hard-nosed about emotion, and even at its most twisty or solemn or vulgar to the point of obscenity, “Unknown Woman” is captivating post-noir delirium. With Kseniya Rappoport. 118m. (Ray Pride)